Storm Brings Power Outages, Fallen Trees, Road Closures

By Andrew Gorosko

An unexpected minor, but disruptive, early winter storm, comprising the remnants of Tropical Storm Tomas, hit Newtown on Monday morning.

The storm, which brought high winds, sleet, and rain to town, created icy travel conditions, dropped tree limbs, closed local roads, and brought down power lines, resulting in about 450 local electric utility customers losing their power in scattered areas for varying periods.

Between about 7 to 10 am, police reported seven motor vehicle accidents, with collisions occurring on Mt Nebo Road, Bradley Lane, Schoolhouse Hill Road, Cobblers Mill Road, Orchard Hill Road, High Rock Road, and South Main Street.

Mitch Gross, a Connecticut Light & Power Company (CL&P) spokesman, said that about 450 local CL&P customers lost their power. CL&P has almost 11,000 local customers. Statewide, about 17,000 CL&P statewide customers lost electricity during the storm. The firm has about 1.2 million customers in the state.

Areas with power problems included: Old Bethel Road, Shady Rest Boulevard, Shepard Hill Road, Walker Hill Road, Cedar Hill Road, Hattertown Road, Old Hawleyville Road, Taunton Hill Road, Gelding Hill Road, Lakeview Terrace, Obtuse Road, Forest Drive, Mountain Manor Road, Sweetbriar Lane, and Pond Brook Road, he said.

Mr Gross said the storm created many relatively small electrical outages, which were scattered across the area. All customers who had lost power during the storm had their electric service restored by CL&P crews by late Monday night, he said.

If there had been leaves remaining on the broadleaf trees in the area, the effects of the storm would have been worse in terms of tree limbs falling onto electric lines, Mr Gross said.

Most of the electrical outages that occurred in the state happened in western Connecticut, he noted.

Fred Hurley, town director of public works, said that fallen trees or tree limbs resulted in road closures at places including Cedar Hill Road, the High Rock Road/High Bridge Road area, the Taunton Hill Road/Taunton Lake Road area, Longview Terrace, Gelding Hill Road, Old Bethel Road, Abbotts Hill Road, Hattertown Road, Castle Hill Road, Possum Ridge Road, Point O’ Rocks Road, and the Sherman Street/Still Hill Road area. At Laurel Trail, a tree branch fell onto electrical lines.

The road closures in different areas lasted varying amounts of time, based on how long it took to resolve a given problem, Mr Hurley said. Town road crews cooperated with CL&P staffers in clearing up the problems, he said. The storm caused trees to fall during different times during the day, Mr Hurley noted.

Rain, sleet, and snow fell, with some parts of town receiving about one-half inch of slushy snow accumulation and other areas receiving only rain, he said.

Between 4:44 am and 9:02 pm on Monday, local volunteer fire companies responded to ten emergency calls for wires down.

Those problem areas included: Old Bethel Road, the Head O’ Meadow Road/Shepard Hill Road area, Chestnut Hill Road, Shady Rest Boulevard, the Taunton Hill Road/Taunton Lake Road area, Putnam Drive, Bennetts Bridge Road, and Key Rock Road.